For many people, taking multiple medications can be confusing due to the similarity of pills and varying frequency of administration. Moreover, it may be difficult for a person to remember whether he/she has already taken a particular medication, and whether it needed to be taken with a meal or separately from other medications. In hospitals and long term care facilities having many patients, this may be even more difficult to manage as the number of medications being administered can easily be confused.
To address the administration of multiple medications, strip packaging has been developed wherein medications are packaged in individual pouches for administration at a specific date and time of day. Typically, these pouches are removably joined together and often provided in rolls. The pouches can be separated from the roll when needed at a particular time of day. For example, FIG. 1 illustrates a conventional strip packaging pouch 10 containing a plurality of medications 12 therein. Various information is displayed on a surface 10a of the pouch 10, including patient identification information 14, time of administration information 16, medication identification, quantity, and strength information 18, special directions 20, and a bar code 22, such as for bedside scanning.
As automated pharmacy machines for preparing strip packaging have become substantially more robust and complex, operating software that is correspondingly robust may be needed to facilitate user interaction and control of these machines for producing such packaging.